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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Free lunches
Message-ID: <1712@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 20:07:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.1712
Posted: Tue Oct  8 20:07:56 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Oct-85 20:26:19 EDT
References: <8509171814.AA23399@ucbopal.Berkeley.Edu> <1803@psuvax1.UUCP> <149@l5.uucp>
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
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Summary: 


>To be wrong is not teh same thing as to be irrational.  A great many
>people believe in a free lunch.  It is difficult to disbelieve it since
>-- 
>Laura Creighton         (note new address!)

Laura is always rational, but, as here, she is frequently wrong.
It is insufficient jsut to follow Heinlein and repeat "There's no
such thing as a free lunch" in every other posting.  There is (in
both the literal and the metaphoric sense).

We all live for free.  We obtain energy from the Sun (free), and all
we make or do is based on how we use the degradation of this energy
into heat (barring a little energy from nuclear fission).  Anything
we do with out physical bodies is based on this "free lunch."  If we
can't get enough energy, we can't do much.

We organize.  That is free.  By organizing, we can make better use of
all this free energy that the Sun gives us.  We can extract energy deposited
millions of years ago, and use it to gather rocks that can be converted
into metals.  It's free, if you can induce people to work together and
help you.

Why do you say "There's no such thing as a free lunch?"  Do you imply
that if I want to improve my circumstances in one respect, I must reduce
them equally (or more) in another respect?  That can't be true, for there
would be NO material wealth if that were the case.  Do you imply that I
must expend effort to get what I want?  Fine, but that effort represents
energy I acquired free, by eating lunch.  Do you mean money? Ah... there's
the rub.

What is money? Simply a means of coercing (or, if you like, inducing)
someone to do for or with me what she would perhaps not do otherwise.
Where does money come from? ... Yes, but I mean initially?  It was (and
remains) a substitute for barter.  I want what you have or can do more
than I want this thing or the effort I may expend doing something for you.
Money isn't wealth.  Money is a communications medium, an aid to organization.
It's only good when you can get or do something with it.

Yes, there is a free lunch.  Life as an organized society is NOT a
zero-sum game (which I suspect is closer to the meaning than are the
straw men I have been beating).  Organization itself creates wealth,
and is the only effective means of doing so on a grand scale.  It is
the flow of that free energy that gives us all our organization, whether
it be social, or just the organization of materials into our high-tech
toys.

So please, let's hear no more from the cult of Heinlein.
-- 

Martin Taylor
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